Smackdown at MPO: plot afoot to strip power from toll opponent

In yet another power grab, there’s a move to have the people’s choice and toll opponent Commissioner Tommy Adkisson’s Chairmanship of the San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) officially neutered by stripping the Chair of the power to set the MPO agenda (which has been the Chair’s role since the MPO’s inception).

Instead, the Nominating Committee, selected by outgoing Chair and rabid pro-toll steamroller Sheila McNeil, is attempting to have the newly formed Executive Committee approve all MPO agendas, not the Chair. The controversial proposal is on the agenda for Monday’s MPO meeting at the Via Metro Center at 1021 San Pedro at 1:30 PM.

Read the agenda item below. (Note: the disclosure of the actual controversial change to the MPO bylaws was buried in the 159-page packet given to Board members, not on the posted agenda for the public).

Wolff has been wishy-washy at best on tolling existing freeways 281 and 1604 in his precinct. Knowing thousands of constituents are angry enough about this unnecessary DOUBLE TAXATION to have rejected ALL three Mayoral candidates tied to these toll roads that tipped the election to Mayor Julian Castro, should have given him pause. Instead, he’s the architect of giving UN-elected bureaucrats, one of them TxDOT, equal power to set the agenda involving BILLIONS in taxpayer dollars, while also saying he’s FOR dissolving the UN-elected tolling authority, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (ARMA).

Wolff ran on smaller government and lower taxes, so now it’s time for Wolff to protect taxpayers’ money and take a principled, consistent position, not give those whom voters cannot hold accountable at the ballot box the power to tax and spend.

Citizens managed to defeat another attempted power grab to make sweeping changes to the bylaws last year under the unpopular Sheila “Those people can afford the tolls” McNeil. So now that a GOOD GUY who is sympathetic to the citizens on toll road policy is set to become Chair, the rules need to change?

Not so fast…

Today’s Express-News article quotes MPO appointee Councilman John Clamp as being in agreement with the bylaw change, saying he thinks the Chair shouldn’t have the power to set the agenda. The Executive Committee is one member each from the county and city, and then two unelected appointees, one from TxDOT and one from Via Transit. This committee never existed until McNeil’s changes to the bylaws in 2008 that stirred controversy and caused a grassroots uproar then, too.

Conveniently, as the new Vice Chair, Clamp will likely sit on the Executive Committee so he seems to have a vested interest. No MPO Chair has denied other members’ requests for an item to be placed on the agenda in MPO history until McNeil. So it’s total hypocrisy to feign concern over the Chair having too much power now that the MPO is under a benevolent leader, Adkisson, when Wolff and Clamp ignored it under two tyrants, former MPO Chair turned Greater Chamber President, Richard Perez, was the first iron-fisted proponent of toll roads, then Sheila McNeil. Where was Clamp when McNeil deliberately blocked Good Guy Rep. David Leibowitz’agenda item to hold TxDOT accountable in 2007? Not a word of concern then.

In fact, just last year Clamp voted to change the MPO bylaws to give the Chair more power to direct the Executive Committee when pro-toll McNeil was Chair, now Clamp’s had a sudden change of heart once a toll opponent becomes Chair. (Read more here.)

UN-elected bureaucrats to have 50% power over BILLIONS in tax dollars

The Executive Committee, not the Chair, will effectively run the MPO if the bylaws are changed. It’s taxation without representation! Fifty percent of the Executive Committee is UN-elected bureaucrats, including TxDOT. Un-elected members casting votes that allocate BILLIONS in taxpayer money has been the center of controversy ever since toll roads came on the scene.

Leibowitz had a bill requiring only elected officials to have voting powers on MPOs, which made it into the TxDOT Sunset bill (that didn’t pass), and this outrage has been the subject of one of our lawsuits in 2007. TxDOT has ruled this MPO with an iron fist for far too long. Adkisson shouldn’t have to share his power with TxDOT, especially.

Railroad: Tollers to try to ram through changes to prevent ANY non-toll fix to 281/1604

An additional concern is the rush to approve several MPO plans (agenda items 6-9) that will hurt the public’s ability to advance non-toll alternatives on 281, 1604, and other projects of concern, when the new Board has not even had its orientation briefing on all the various MPO plans, what they mean, and the significance of these changes.

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San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization Agenda

3. Discussion and Appropriate Action on the Election of Chair and Vice Chair

Purpose

To take action on the selection of MPO Transportation Policy Board (TPB) Chair and

Vice Chair positions.

Issue

A Nominating Committee was appointed at the May 2009 TPB Meeting. The purpose of

this committee is to recommend candidates for the MPO Chair and Vice-Chair positions

for the term of June 2009 through May 2011. This committee is comprised of